A Python Deep Copy Nested List Auto-Generator

An improvement on this notion is listed here.

I was trying to find a way to auto-generate a nested list with filler data that does not result in shallow copying problems (i.e., when I change one value, a whole bunch of values change). This is what I figured out using list comprehensions. Hence, it should be quite efficient. Error checking could be built-in but I didn't feel the need.


#builds a nested list from the inner-most list to the outer-most 
#listRangeTuples: must be a list or tuple of tuples to fill the 
#                 range values 
#degree: number of degrees or levels of nesting 
#theList: this is the variable that passes the lower nest at 
#         each point; it also sets the default value

import copy

def nestedListBuilder(listRangeTuples, degree=3, theList=None): 
    if degree == 0: 
        return theList 
    x = [copy.deepcopy(theList) for i in range    \
            (listRangeTuples[0][0], listRangeTuples[0][1])]
    return nestedListBuilder(listRangeTuples[1:], degree-1, x)